Old Adversaries
by EllieLover19
Summary: Set in S5 of Buffy and S2 of Angel. Gunn joins forces with the Scooby Gang to take down a demon from his past once it mysteriously reappears in Sunnydale. Meanwhile in L.A., Wes and Cordelia try to prevent a ritual sacrifice.
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue **

The snake-like tendrils whipped through the air as Buffy and Gunn made their way for the beast; axes held high.

Gunn made a quick dash to the right as one soared straight to his chest. He turned back quickly and decapitated the slithery head. Another made a quick snap at his skull; Gunn snatched it by the throat and ripped it from the seams of the beast ahead of him.

Buffy slung her axe in the air, cutting and slicing through the tendrils. One unfortunately gained the advantage once it snuck behind her and wrapped its body around her axe wielding wrist. Another caught her by the ankle, tightly squeezing its body around her limb. Before the slayer knew it, she was being pulled into the air, helplessly flailing her body to break free.

"Gunn!" she cried.

He looked to see the predicament the slayer was in; just after slicing through another tendril, he rushed to her aid. He was quickly cut off however, when another slithery pursuer grazed pass his boots, tripping him. The axe fell out of Gunn's hand and he fell to the ground.

"Gunn!" he heard Buffy call again. She was being raised higher and higher into the air. "Help!"

Gunn scrambled to his feet, but his snaky enemies were faster. One wrapped its body around Gunn's waist, now bringing him into the air; another glided slowly towards him. It hissed as it moved closer and closer to his face.

"_Time to join your friendsss_" it said in a scratchy voice. It opened its mouth, revealing sharp fangs protruding from both sides, green fluid dripping from them.

The snake clamped down on Gun's neck with its fangs, the man heard himself scream from the searing pain.

He could feel the poison immediately coursing through his body, his limbs began to go numb, his shouting ceased, the snake bit down harder and harder into his neck.

Gunn found himself slipping out of consciousness. Buffy's cries for help were fading.

The world went black.

…

**Just the prologue to the story, everything that happened a certain time before will be focused on in the next chapter. Just tell me what you think and if I should continue. **

**Review Please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Los Angeles **

**One Week Before  
**

It seemed like a good idea at the time, rescuing a teenager girl from a ritual sacrifice and eliminating an entire cult of demons. Cordelia's vision didn't imply the number of beasts involved, but the three of them got a pretty good guess once they tracked the girl's location. An eerie cave a little ways out of the city.

Between Wesley and Gunn fending off the entrance to the cave against five lizard-like creatures and Cordelia protecting the girl from two other lizards, the odds were pretty bad.

"Wes, look out!" Gunn called, noticing two demons coming at him from behind. Wesley ducked, Gunn snatched out a dagger from his belt and flicked it through the air. The blade immediately pierced through one's chest. Wesley twirled to his feet, slicing through the other.

"Uh, now you…behind you," Wesley pointed, turning to Gunn.

Slimy, green arms wrapped around Gunn's shoulders, attempting to squeeze him tight. Gunn forced his weight back, pushing the demon into the cave wall; he pulled away from the creature's grasp, turned and jabbed his sword through its gut. The lizard cried out in pain.

"Hello! Guys! Two against one isn't always fair." Cordelia shouted, awkwardly holding her sword as she ducked and dodged the two lizard's lunges for her. The teenage girl was determined to keep out of the way and behind Cordelia.

As one raised its arm for another lunge, Cordelia found the perfect opportunity to dice her sword across its chest…but she stumbled over a root instead. The sword fell out of her hand, and she and the girl were left defenseless.

The girl screamed as one of the demon's started to bring his goopy claws down on Cordelia. It stopped mid-way, however, frozen almost. That's when Cordelia looked to see the blade piercing through his torso from the other side. Wes had saved the day. He grabbed the lizard by its shoulder and shoved it aside, away from his blade and Cordelia.

Gunn had taken care of the other one that started in for the girl by simply decapitating it. Its slimy lizard head rolled next to Cordelia.

"Ew," she frowned, pushing it away. Wesley took her outreaching hand to help her up, Gunn rushed over to the teenage girl to make sure she was okay.

"Nice job with that one," the former watcher said, gesturing to the demon he rescued her from.

"Hey, you try going all demon-hunter without a vampire or a slayer to back you up." Cordelia said, coming to her feet. "What happened to the other two?"

"They fled," Gunn said, he and the girl joining Cordelia and Wesley. "Guess that means we have more rituals to look forward to if they can round up more of... whatever the hell these guys are."

"Crap," Cordelia sighed, picking up her sword. "That should be fun."

"Are you alright?" Wesley looked at the girl.

"Fine, fine, yeah," she nodded, shivering. "Just a little wigged is all." She hugged herself.

"What happened?" Gunn asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I don't know. I mean… at first I thought it was a joke, my friends are kinda into this stuff. But then, when they killed that little girl…"

"Wait, what?" Cordelia interrupted. "They took someone else too?"

The girl nodded.

"Where?" Wesley asked.

"Um…" the girl hesitated. "Through there," she pointed to another entrance through the candle-lit cave.

It took Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn a while to realize that the part of the cave they were in didn't really seem all that appropriate for a ritual sacrifice. No wacky symbol in the middle of the floor, no scared urn; just five, dead slimy, lizard demons in a regular cave.

"Would you mind leading the way?"

The girl nodded again. She slowly made her made to the dark entrance, the other three followed. She led them down an unlit path; it wasn't until a moment or so later they saw flickering lights ahead through another entrance way.

The four of them entered a large circular room, brightly lit by the candles on the root wall. A stone well sat in the middle of the room, an altar lay on the other side of it.

"Down there," she pointed to the well.

"Oh god," Cordelia whispered, the thought of a little girl being defenselessly thrown down a well shook her. The girl stayed behind as Wesley, Gunn and Cordelia approached the well.

Wesley was the first to look down it, he saw nothing but darkness. The former watcher reached in his pants' pocket and pulled out a flashlight. He clicked it on and shined it down the black pit. Just as he feared, a little girl's body floated lifelessly at the bottom of it.

"This is crazy," Gunn started. The water the girl lay in bubbled; it rose higher and higher, then calmed and fizzed.

"What-what the hell was that?" a puzzled Cordelia asked.

"Um," Wesley made a face. Right before his eyes the girl was sucked into the water, as if a drain had pulled her down.

"Was that bad?" Gunn asked cautiously.

A grumbling sound came from the well. The ground suddenly shook.

"Yeah, apparently it caused this." Wesley shouted, trying to keep his balance.

"What do we do!" the teenage girl cried.

"Run!"

…

**Sunnydale **

"Dinner is served," Buffy gladly said, placing the plate of food on the dinner table in front of her mother.

"Buffy, you really didn't have-" Joyce Summers began to say to her daughter.

"Oh, no need to say it," the slayer interrupted. "I had to." She smiled. "I'm not the greatest cook but…Dawn helped, and you shouldn't have to lift a finger."

"Excuse me?" Dawn called from the kitchen. "Helped?" she stormed into the dining room. "I pretty much prepared the whole meal."

"Whatever." Buffy rolled her eyes at her sister. "Just enjoy the meal mom." She smiled once more, giving a little curtsy in the process.

"Oh please," Dawn mumbled in disgust as she walked back into the kitchen.

"I'll see you later," Buffy put a hand on her mom's shoulder before starting out the dining room.

"Oh honey, you're not joining us?" Joyce looked up to her eldest daughter .

"Giles thinks it's crucial that I patrol tonight, he's got this bad vibe that somethin' is a brewin'…but I think it's just a mid-life paranoia thing." Buffy grabbed her jean jacket from the coat rack. "If something doesn't decide to pummel me in the next hour, I'll head straight back home." She assured.

"Okay," Joyce sighed. "Well…be careful." The woman said countless of times before when her daughter headed out on her nightly patrol.

"Aren't I always?" the blond gave her regular response, peeking into the dining room. "See you later."

…

"I knew Giles was just paranoid," Buffy said.

She spent the last hour and a half navigating through Waverly Park, and then on the east end cemeteries. Nothing. No creepy crawlies, no vamps, just a few horny teenagers who were more than ready to go all the way.

It eeked Buffy when she realized how sexually active teenagers were today; she sometimes wondered if she were too aggressive with Pike and Angel in her high school days…as far as making out went. She was just glad Dawn didn't have a boyfriend, it'd be too stressful for the slayer. Worrying if he were some kind of supernatural creature, or worse…a quarterback. In her experience of dating, Buffy hadn't really known the creature referred to as a _Nice, Sweet, Normal, Boy_; her guys always had something going on.

Pike was an aspiring demon hunter, Angel was a vampire, and Riley….

It had almost been two weeks since he left town. Buffy was still in the process of getting over him, (pummeling the troll, Olaf, helped greatly) some nights she cried about it, wishing she'd reached him in time to tell him how she really felt; but other nights she was just relieved there was one less thing in her life she had to worry about. She missed cuddling and…the other thing, but a boyfriend was the last thing she needed at the moment. Between this new Glory chick, Dawn being the Key, and her mom's illness, focusing on one other person was just too much to handle. She'd miss him, but other things needed to be tended to.

"Guess I'll head back," the slayer found herself saying, walking through the town square passing an alley. That's when her eyes fell upon a hooded figure moving into another alley, it ran as if trying to avoid someone seeing it. "Hey!" Buffy called.

She ran in the same direction, removing her stake from her pocket. "Hey!" she called again, turning into the same alley. Though there was little light, she could definitely tell whatever it was, it was running from her. Buffy picked up the pace, second by second getting closer to her opponent. She could hear the thing breathe, it sounded like he or she was a smoker or some species of demon that had husky voices.

The figure turned a corner into another alleyway, Buffy turned as well, but she found that the figure stopped running. She collided harshly with it, nearly falling.

"Slayer," it spoke, clearly a man. "You must see this."

" Who are-"

"Don't ask questions, just look." He ordered.

"This isn't some kind of ploy, you're not trying to kill me?"

"I wish to do no harm to the slayer. You are the only one who can stop this."

Buffy slowly walked towards the figure; she joined his side.

"Stop wh-" Buffy's eyes fell upon what the demon faced.

Three bodies lay sprawled out on the alleyway floor. Their hearts had been completely ripped out. It seemed as though whatever did it pierced completely through the entire torso.

"Oh my god." Buffy turned her face up. "What did this?" she looked to the figure.

He wasn't there.

…


	3. Chapter 3

Wesley pushed forward faster and faster as the ceiling above began to collapse. He lead the way through the cave; the young girl behind him, Gunn behind her and Cordelia lagging a little ways back. He found it odd that it took them long to reach the entrance to the cave, he could've sworn that they were closer.

Once they reached a familiar lit room that Wesley only recognized as the entrance way where they're fight against the lizard demons took place, they saw that the entrance hole was gone. The demon bodies had disappeared, leaving no trace of the fight.

"What the hell!" he heard Gunn shout. "Where are we!"

"I thought this was the way," the teenage girl said.

"It is... I think." Wesley looked around the cave, cautious of the falling rocks. "Let's head back!"

Cordelia immediately turned on her heel; now she lead the way back to the altar room.

They all ran through the dark pathway they followed moments ago. Instead of reentering into the room with the creepy well, they found themselves standing in another similarly lit cave.

"Oh god!" Cordelia panicked. "Wes, what's going on?"

"They must've jinxed the cave before we got here. They probably wanted to turn anyone around who-"

A rock smacked hard into the former watcher's skull. He collapsed to the ground in a daze.

"Wesley!" Gunn called, reaching down for his companion. He threw one of his limp arms around his shoulder.

"What do we do?" the girl cried, looking up to the crumbling ceiling above. She grabbed hold of Cordelia's arm.

Any second they'd all be buried in the heaps of what used to be a cave.

Gunn looked around, completely stunned at the sight of everything falling. He never thought this would be the way he'd go out;battling a ferocious demon, maybe, but being crushed to death by the remains of a jinxed cave...

The demon hunter looked up, a large rock soared to the ground preparing to knock him out if his misery. However, something strange happened. The rock stopped. The ceiling altogether stopped crumbling. A blue shimmer surrounded him, Wesley, Cordelia and the girl latched onto her shoulder. Everything went white. Gunn's body suddenly felt weak. He closed his eyes and fell to the ground, Wesley in his arms.

A few moments later he opened them, regaining some sort of strength and consciousness. Gunn found himself, and Wesley, laying on the floor of Caritas; Lorne, the Deathwok Clan demon looking down at them.

"Well my darlings," he said through his ruby red lips."Looks like we've got an apocalypse on our hands."

**...**

**Sunnydale**

After calling the cops and giving her statement of finding the three bodies while taking a shortcut home from the Bronze, Buffy headed straight to the Magic Box, knowing good and well that Rupert Giles was awake and possibly doing inventory for the store. Buffy called her mom, giving her regrets for not returning home immediately after an hour of patrolling. She then called Giles, informing him of the situation with the bodies and the weirdo teleporting demon who lead her to them. He gave his usual responses. "Good Lord" probably said while taking off his glasses all worried, and "Are you alright?" after Buffy told him about the encounter with the teleporting demon.

It never ceased to amaze the slayer how predictable her former watcher was.

Buffy stormed into the shop and immediately saw Giles, Xander and Anya sitting around the usual round table.

"Buffy," Giles called, standing from his chair.

"Giles I'm honestly in no mood for your routine check up on me." she came to the table. "I'm fine, it didn't try to hurt me; It was helping. I just wanna find whatever is doing this and kill it...fast." the slayer said, a strong sense of urgency in her voice.

"I understand, but we wouldn't even know where to start." Giles said. "There are hundreds of demons who harbor and feast on human hearts."

"That and there are probably thousands of ritual sacrifices that require a human heart." Anya added.

"Fine,"Buffy shrugged. "Then I'll just catch this thing in the act and-"

"Or," a voice came from the entrance door. Everyone turned to look. A man wearing a trench coat walked into the store. "Maybe it'll..catch you." he grinned.

Snakes of all kind suddenly sprouted from under the trench coat, flailing and snapping their way at Buffy.

"Giles!" Buffy shouted, jumping back in a stance. "Weapons!"

Two snakes lunged straight for the slayer.

**...**


	4. Chapter 4

**Los Angeles **

Gunn didn't feel well at all; his stomach turned, his head pounded. He tried hard to listen to what Lorne had to say, but the words just went in one ear and out the other. It pained him to even talk, much less think.

Wesley sat on one of the couches, an ice pack held on the spot where the rock hit him; Cordelia and the teenage girl, who's name they learned was Abby, sat on the edge of the stage. Gunn could almost make out a slight resemblance in the two girls. Though Cordelia had cut her hair and highlighted it not too long ago, they both shared a trait of long brunette hair along with beautiful facial features, and mysteriously smooth tan skin. They didn't look exactly alike, but Gunn could see why the girl had taken to Cordy more than he or Wesley...being the only girl out of the three of them and both equally shaken by the disappearing act in the cave and the little girl's death.

"So you teleported us hear instead of calling?" Wesley winced, holding up the ice pack.

"Yeah," Lorne nodded. "I started to call but there was a Seer here who said you might be in danger; so I did the whole magic act and...ta dah, you're feasting your eyes on beautiful me. Sorry about the side effects. First stage is drowsiness, next-"

"Lemme guess," Gunn chimed in. "Wooziness?" he leaned further back in his chair, holding his stomach.

"Yup, looks like it got you bad."

"I'm a fighter, I'll get through it," Gunn swallowed. "So you were saying somethin' about an apocalypse?"

"Ah yes. So, this S' Tarah demon gets up on stage, drunk as ever, not realizing that I'm reading him, and he decides to sing Too Shy by Kajagoogoo. I thought, interesting selection; hadn't heard it since the '80's, go for it...but then I find out he's part of this legion that's planing to raise some snaky big bad."

.

"Isn't that always their plan?" Cordelia sighed.

"Naturally," Lorne nodded towards her. "But this is serious stuff...this snaky big bad is one of the original Old Ones."

"Old Ones?" Wesley frowned, sitting up on the couch.

"The 20 foot-tall guys who were here at the supposed beginning?" Gunn asked.

"Precisely Sweet Cakes." Lorne turned to Gunn. "This S' Tarah had conducted several rituals in order to feed this thing; which makes me wonder why he was here tonight."

"Maybe it was his night off." Gunn snorted.

"Nope," Lorne shook his head. "These guys don't rest until they get what they want. This S' Tarah either quit or was glamored by something."

"S' Tarah, yes." Wesley said, slowly standing. He made a face suggesting that he suddenly remembered something. "They were the demons in the cave."

"Think they were performing one of these rituals?" Cordelia asked.

"Must've been," Lorne answered. "The lot of them have been gathering in the city organizing these things. Organ harvesting, human sacrifices,"

"The little girl," Wesley whispered more to himself than anyone in the room.

"All the works," Gunn concluded. "Hope you kept this guy around Lorne."

"In the storage closet," he pointed to the back of the club. "Fell out there a few minutes ago after his fiftieth Yeager."

"Wow, them demons can sure pack it in." Cordelia joked.

Gunn stood from his chair and made his way to the storage closest. Sure enough, the lizard looking demon lay wasted on the floor of the closest. At the sound of someone entering, it looked up; the thing immediately smiled when he saw Gunn.

"You got a lot of explaining to do." Gunn said, giving the demon a look of disgust.

"Aw, the leader," it chuckled. "I remember you." though it was obviously drunk, it spoke clear as ever. Not making much sense though.

"What?" Gunn frowned.

"The leader...of that pathetic demon...hunting...crew." it belched then chuckled once more. "I remember when we ...jumped you fools."

"We got jumped by a lot of-" Gunn started. He looked at the demon hard, trying to recall any part of it that looked familiar, aside from the fight in the cave.

That's when he remembered. This wasn't the first time he'd gone up against these guys. Memories of what happened immediately came rushing back, anger filled every part of the demon hunter's body. He balled his hands into fists.

The demon laughed again. Gunn found himself constantly thrashing his boot into the demon's rib cage. Harder and harder his foot connected with the demon's gut. Pretty soon he found himself extracting another dagger from his belt, preparing to the kill the only lead the gang had.

Gunn raised the blade high.

Anger consumed him.

**...**

**Check out the book cover for this fanfic on My Page!  
**


	5. Chapter 5

**Sunnydale **

The man walked further into the store, his snake pals whipping everywhere; knocking over jars, shelves and book cases.

Buffy, Xander and Anya backed up further into the shop as Giles ran into the training room for weapons.

"He's like Doctor Octopus...except...they're snakes." Xander said, panicked.

"This isn't a comic book Xander," Buffy shook her head.

"Yah see slayer," the trench coated man said, raising a finger. "The thing I like about you is your determination. Before knowing what I was, knowing what I could do to you," a snake gapped at Buffy. "You had it in your mind that you would kill me." the man seemed awfully pleasant for someone with snakes flailing from his limbs. He sort of reminded Buffy of Whistler. "You sure as hell didn't count on me looking for you though."

"Buffy!" Giles called from the doorway of the training room. The slayer turned back quickly, Giles tossed her a double-headed battle ax. She caught it with ease.

"Thanks, I was tired of this guy-" Buffy was cut off at the sudden strike of a green snake.

Buffy thought quick. She slung her ax perfectly through the air, dicing the snake's head from its body. Green liquid spattered from the remains; some of it landed on her t-shirt, some of it landed on her bare skin, she covered her face from the rest. Her flesh immediately burned.

Hisses echoed through the store, followed by high-pitched screeches. They came from the snakes. Buffy must've counted at least fifteen of them.

"Ooh," the man said, swishing his index finger. "They didn't like that, slayer."

All fifteen snakes fell in formation, turning their slanted eyes to Buffy.

"It's poisonous," Buffy winced at the burns on her arms. " I'll take out as many as I can, just watch out for the-"

"Buffy!" Xander shouted.

The fifteen snakes jetted towards her. Their venomous mouths wide open.

With two fierce strikes, Buffy took out four of them. Xander, wielding a broad sword, dodged two and snapped his blade across one's neck, decapitating it. He kicked away the body to prevent any of the green liquid from spewing out anymore than it already did; only a little got on his arms, burning away the hairs in the process. He dodged right, Buffy went left. Giles and Anya, wielding similar swords, held their own against three multicolored snakes

Buffy hopped over the register counter, attracting four of them. She ducked behind the counter, picking her moment to strike. She came to her feet a moment later and slashed her ax at two of them, decapitating one and badly injuring another. Buffy peered behind the counter once more, attempting to avoid the venom whipping through the air.

"Come on girly, you can do better than that. Quit hiding," the trench coat man giggled as if playing a game of hide and seek with a child.

Buffy did just what he chimed her to do. She stood and struck the remaining three, taking out two and cutting deep into the throat of the other, deep enough to take him out the fight. The venomous blood sprayed everywhere, Buffy ducked behind the counter one last time. She could hear the man laugh.

Now that her dinner was done, she had to help her friends.

Xander and Anya worked together to take out the last three;apparently someone had done away with the other four. One whacked Giles into the the nearest wall, and the three that were still alive were close to doing the same, or possibly worse, to Xander and Anya who were suddenly disarmed.

Buffy slung her ax in the air, letting it soar fiercely to the three remaining snakes. Their heads parted immediately. Xander grabbed Anya and pulled her down behind a bookshelf, just as the venom spewed out.

Confident that her job was done, Buffy came face to face with the trench coated man; he remained in the same spot during the battle. He simply smiled as he watched the girl put her hands on her hips.

"So, I guess that means I kill you now?"

"Maybe. Or..." the man outstretched his arms. The decapitated snakes sprung to life, immediately regrowing their heads, and, to top it off, more and more snakes sprouted from under the trench coat. The grand total possibly 30, maybe more.

The slayer's look of triumph faded when she saw her opponents. They all looked to her and prepared to strike.

**...**

**Author's Note: Really getting into this story, I'm loving the way the plot is unfolding as I write. Be on the look out for the next chapter. **

**Review Please!**


	6. Chapter 6

"What the hell are you doing?" Lorne said, grabbing Gunn's arm before he plunged the dagger into the S'Tarah demon's gut.

"This guy, I know this guy," Gunn glared down at the demon, the determination of killing him still in his eyes.

"Good, maybe you can get him to talk." Lorne frowned.

"No, not like that. He… helped," Gunn couldn't speak. Memories of what happened years ago came rushing back. Lorne could've sworn the man was trying to hold back tears.

Gunn shrugged away from Lorne and stormed away from the supply closet, leaving Lorne to look down suspiciously at the drunk and now unconscious S'Tarah.

"Hmm," the Deathwok Clan demon said, putting his hands on his hips. "You just may get your wish to die after all."

…

"Do you think they'll come back for her?" Cordelia asked, taking a seat on the couch next to Wesley. He still clutched onto the ice pack on his skull.

"Who? Abby? I don't think so. We should probably get her home as soon as possible. Her parents must be worried."

"That's the thing, she doesn't have any," Cordelia whispered. They both turned to Abby, who was sitting on the stage entertaining herself with some type of magical doohickey Lorne allowed her to fiddle with. She occasionally looked to Wesley and Cordelia.

"You're sure?" the former watcher asked, slightly frowning. Cordelia nodded.

"They were killed when she was young, she told me. Case was never solved, the bodies were just found mangled." Cordelia shrugged. "She lives in a foster home a little ways from here."

"No matter, we should get her there." Wesley poked out his chest and used his free hand to push it into his back. "She's definitely a lot safer there than she is with us." He flinched as his back cracked.

"Maybe…it's just… I kinda have a vibe that these S'Tarah guys want only her, not just some other girl."

"Do tell." Wesley nodded.

"Well, Abby told me she had this feeling like she was being watched for days. Like she said, she thought her friends were playing a joke on her. Each time she left the foster home or walked from school, she either heard footsteps or someone in the bushes; those incidents were in broad daylight. But when she was taken, it was at night. She was working on a project at school and left kinda late."

"So you believe these S'Tarah wanted her specifically?" Wesley raised a brow.

"Yeah, and maybe whatever happened to her parents may be linked to why the lizard guys wanted her."

"You think we should do some digging then?"

"I think so."

"Hey!" came Lorne, turning a corner from the back of the club into the main area. "Your demon fightin' pal come out here?"

"No," Wesley said, Cordelia merely shook her head.

"Last I saw he was headed to interrogate your lizard guy," Cordelia added.

"Yeah, yeah well I found him wailing on our lead; took out a dagger to finish the job." Lorne folded his arms.

"Why would he do that?" Cordelia looked questionably from Wes to Lorne.

"No clue," Lorne shrugged. "Once I stopped him, he said he knew the guy. He helped do something…then he just scurried off."

"Huh, maybe a demon from his past." Wesley offered.

"Should one of us go talk to him?" Abby piped in, seemingly worried.

"Um…it's good to let Charles handle his personal issues himself sometimes," Cordelia said.

"Well when he tried to do that he nearly gutted that S'Tarah like a fish." Lorne nodded back to the supply closet. "He's out right now, but he'll probably gain consciousness in a few."

"You know what Lorne," Wesley said a moment or two later. "There's something pulling at the back of my mind. If this situation is so huge, why only call us? You didn't happened to phone-"

"Angel? Yeah, yeah I did." Lorne nodded, hoping the mention of the vampire wouldn't make Cordelia jump up and slap him silly.

As far as the empath demon knew, things were still pretty shaky between them and Angel. But, as much as Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn might've perhaps hated him at the moment, this was an apocalypse. He needed the big guns.

If he had her number, he might've considered phoning that Slayer in Sunnyville…or Sunnydale.

"Now, I know things are kinda wonky between you guys," Lorne put up a hand in defense. "But we may need him."

"No, no I understand." Wesley's eyes fell to the floor, clearly both angry and disappointed. He looked over to Cordy, who had her arms folded and eyes cocked to the ceiling annoyed. Wesley nudged her.

"Yes, yes," she said, rolling her eyes to Lorne. "We may need him."

"May need who?" came a voice at the entrance steps of Caritas. Lorne, Cordelia, Wesley and Abby looked to see who it was.

Angel.

…

Buffy's stomach immediately knotted up as she watched the thirty or so snakes whip through the Magic Box. With no witches, not enough soldiers, and a hellish fear of snakes overall, how the hell was she gonna do this?

"Crap." The slayer heard Xander muttered behind her.

"What do we do?" Anya whimpered.

"We start slashing until they're all gone." Buffy said confidentially, though she knew it wasn't exactly a good plan.

The trench coat man simply giggled.

"It wasn't gonna be that easy." He said.

Just as the snakes began to strike, the man's head suddenly fell; slashed away. A couple of his pals went down with him. The other snakes seemed to soak back into the man's headless body. Pretty soon, it seemed as if they never existed. The man fell to the ground, the hissing and giggling stopped.

Another man appeared where the trench coated man stood; the slayer's savior. He held a short blade in the air, green slime dripping from it.

After making sure trench coat guy was out and none of his snake buddies were coming back, the man lowered his blade and looked up to Buffy.

She saw that his pupils were completely black, like Willow's when she got a little too into some of the spells she performed. The man had tan skin and, on his arms, scales that belonged to maybe a lizard trailed along his bulky muscles, which he had no problem displaying with the black tank top he wore and baggy camouflage pants and black tennis shoes he topped it off with. Aside from the buzzed out eyes, he displayed handsome features; but before Buffy could swoon, she had to know if he was one of the good guys or if he just wanted to take credit for killing the Slayer.

"Who are you?" Buffy stepped forward.

"That is how you thank someone who just saved your life?" he asked. His voice was familiar.

"I'm normally the one doing the saving." She assured him.

"There is no need to worry, slayer. I am Zeke." He said, bowing.

"Okay, what do you want Zeke?" Buffy folded her arms.

"To help you avert the emerging apocalypse." He simply answered, as if she knew the world was about to end…again.

"What?" Buffy frowned.

"I am the one who led you to the bodies, and I'm afraid that they're more of him," he nodded to decapitated- trench coat guy. "All over, collecting hearts for something big."

"Oh great," Xander sarcastically replied.

"Ah yes," Giles said, coming to Buffy's side. "But what exactly?" he looked inquisitively at Zeke.

"There will be plenty of time to explain," Zeke said.

"If there's an apocalypse, there's no such thing as time. We need to know everything, now." Buffy ordered, taking a step closer to the man.

"Fine, but" Zeke looked down at trench coat guy's severed head. It almost seemed to have moved. "Their heads reattach in a certain amount of time and I'm afraid we've reached that time."

The head glided back to its body and suddenly clung onto the remains.

"Step back!" Zeke demanded, raising his sword.

He dug it straight through the skull.

…

"Well look what the cat dragged in," Cordelia said, folding her arms as she stood from the couch. She glared at Angel with a fire in her eyes. Angel was sure if she had the power she'd set him ablaze right then and there. But her little glare suddenly twitched into a wince, she wrinkled her nose. "Or, what dragged in the cat. What is that smell?" she covered her nose.

"Oh, I was in the sew-" Angel started.

"Don't care," Cordelia interrupted, shaking off her look of disgust. "I'd ask what you're doing here, but it seems there's an apocalypse and…Lorne needs you." Cordelia walked off to join Abby on the stage. She had set aside the magical contraption she was playing with to catch the reaction when Angel walked in. Cordelia took her arm and encouraged her to the play with the thing that looked a lot like a sewing machine. She shot Angel one last look of hate.

"Thanks for coming Angel," Lorne nodded, stuffing his hands nervously in the pockets of his bright blue pants.

"You know me, I'm always up for an apocalypse," he lightly smirked. His eyes fell upon an injured Wesley, who remained on the couch upon his arrival. "Wes," he nodded.

"Angel," Wesley nodded back, clearly not too happy to see him.

"You alright?" the vampire asked, gesturing to the ice pack on his head.

"Just fine. It' just the price you pay for fighting a good fight,"

"Right," Angel nodded once more. It was silent for a few moments; Lorne almost let it continue, but he remembered the world was at stake.

"So, uh, Angel. As you may already know by my colorful phone message, we have a bit of an… end of the world crisis here."

…

Gunn sat on the roof of Caritas, hoping the view of the city would calm his nerves; ease the horrid memories far from his mind. But that didn't work. Every second, more and more details of what happened that night faded back.

All the bodies, the blood, the death.

_Why'd they make me leader?_ He kept questioning. _It never would've happened. _

He tried so hard to fight back the urge to return to that supply closet to kill the S'Tarah. He knew exactly what he was.

He knew exactly what that guy did.

He took part in the slaughter of almost half his old crew back in '97.

…

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